Safe
by Kaffee und Sahne
Summary: Spoilers: Chp. 186! Don't hurt me! He can still see the flower, but it's not as bad as he wants it to be. Kanda.x.Bak friendship, Komui's upset, and Zhu being cute. Oneshot.


**Whee~ Finally got this written out in the last thirty minutes or so. I needed to do something with baby-Kanda cause he's too absolutely adorable to pass up writing about.**

**Be prepared for lots of spoilers, and Bak being a complete nutcase.**

**Summary: He can still see the flower, but it's not as bad as he wants it to be. KandaxBak friendship, Komui's upset, and Zhu being cute. Oneshot.**

* * *

It's like a bad play, he thinks as he sees the ratty little boy make his way into the room. Cropped blackish-blue hair, so uneven it looks like it was cut with a sword, and a skinny, short, lanky, and malnourished-looking body, dressed in the sad remnants of a kimono. He can't believe the boy has lived like this for so long.

No, the boy hasn't lived at all, he corrects himself as the malnourished-looking body is sat down in a chair, obviously frightened of the many faces in the room.

Twenty-year-old Komui makes a sad noise from beside him, and all twenty-year-old Bak Chan can do is stare at the non-living now-living body.

Who gave him permission to live like this? he asks himself as Komui prepares to stand, obviously angry now.

"How can we do this to a fellow human being!?" Komui breaks out, receiving glares from the other faces and no reaction from the fellow human being, who shifts and attempts to brush his hair out of his face, revealing a sad-looking, sunken-in dark blue eye.

Something comes over Bak as he stares at the boy, and he walks over to him and kneels in front of him, saying "_Ni hao ma_?" (1) and getting no response. Ah, the boy isn't Chinese.

However, the boy's lips adjust as if he wants to speak, but nothing more happens. Bak freezes, and grabs the boy's hands and runs with him out the door and through the hallways as if it's a normal thing.

* * *

The cafeteria is empty. Everyone is cleaning up elsewhere, and it makes Bak happy that the boy doesn't have to see so many scary faces.

"Whew, we're safe, I guess…"

The boy's head is turned towards him, but the tattered hair is covering his eyes so thickly that Bak wonders if the boy can even see him. Then, the boy murmurs something.

"_Ano_… _hasu desu_…" (2)

Bak blinks, not understanding the vague Japanese that the boy is speaking. Then, Old Man Zhu appears at the two boys' sides, his wise and withered face grim.

"Kanda, do you still see the flower?"

Bak is confused, but the boy knows the man and nods.

"I see… Let's keep this a secret, just between you and me. You mustn't dwell on it. It is just an illusion. That flower is an illusion."

The boy's head ducks down into his chest and tears pour out from under his uneven bangs. Bak is still confused, but no more so than when Old Man Zhu is normal. Zhu apparently doesn't notice that Bak is there, and pets the boy's head, wandering back toward the kitchen.

Then, Bak turns to the boy, unsure of what to do now. Kanda? his name was? It's a strong and beautiful name, and it makes Bak wonder who came up with it if the boy was just an experiment.

This thought brings him back to his own uncles, the ones who did this. Bak gets an angry look on his face – Komui's temper is starting to rub off on him – and gets a frightened expression from Kanda, who's face is turned up at him with his mouth open in an 'O'. Bak's anger subsides in an instant and he kneels down in front of his new ward.

"You're safe with us, you know that, Kanda? _Ni anquan hao_." (3) And with that, he puts his arms around the boy and gives him a hug and takes him back to the meeting room.

Old Man Zhu watches from the kitchen, a knowing, yet senile, smile on his face.

* * *

**Fwee~ Done! Yay! Cute, ne? I think it is~**

**Glossary:**

**1. Ni hao ma. - How are you?**

**2. Ano... hasu desu... - Um... the lotus...**

**3. Ni anquan hao. - You're safe.**

**Reviews appreciated but not demanded. Flames will be used to stoke the fire of Mrs. Lovett's oven.**


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